So... Alright - Everything old is new again

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Geoff learns to look backward.. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So I was riding my bike Justoring my bike around town Just brainstorming ideas Which I feel like is how I used to start Every episode of So Alright And I haven't in quite some time I don't know if you've noticed But I have made a pointed effort

Not to do that anymore I felt like it was getting real redundant, real fast And also, who gives a fuck how I was coming up with ideas? Like, especially if the only way I ever come up with ideas is riding a bicycle. And I just fell back into that trap again. Fucker. All right. Well, anyway, I was riding my bike this morning,

trying to come up with ideas for this very podcast. And it started raining on me. And that's the first thing I want to talk about. I want to say I was maybe 40% of the way through a, probably just like a 12-mile ride. I'm not riding a ton these days because it's so hot outside. Although today it's been lovely.

But anyway, I was about, yeah, like 40% of the way through a 12-mile ride when it started to rain. Not bad rain. Something a little bit more than a sprinkle, like a gentle shower, quite pleasant, honestly. And my first thought was, well,

I should turn around and go home. But I was also like, Why? I'm already miles away from home. Why would I turn around and go back the way I came when I can just plow forward and continue on my ride? It's just a little rain. And I got so quickly excited. I suddenly was awash in memories of being younger, being 14, 13 years old, and riding my bicycle in the rain with my friends. It used to be one of my favorite things to do, especially when I lived in Louisiana and the outskirts of New Orleans

where it rained constantly, I felt like as soon as it started raining when I was a kid, when I was like 14, if it started raining, I ran to the garage to get my bike and to go hit the streets with my friends and just splash and ride through puddles and New Orleans was,

even the outskirts where we were, was so below the sea level that was just like knee-high water wherever you wanted to ride through. I'm sure it was disgusting and covered in chemicals and God knows what but I rode through it like a motherfucker

and I loved every second of it and for a second there I thought oh I feel like a kid again but I realized that's not quite true I don't think I did feel like a kid because if I saw it start raining I would not think I should get on my bike and go out and hit the streets

I didn't mind that it happened to me when I was on the road but I think the true difference there for me between feeling like a kid again and just embracing the moment is that if I felt, if I truly felt like I felt when I was a kid,

I would seek that shit out instead of just accepted and enjoy it in the moment. Anyway, I was surprised that most people decided to hide under awnings or under bridges or under big trees

or wherever they could find. A lot of bridges on the trail that I was on. And that was kind of cute because you see like all these joggers and bike riders and stuff making little communities and just like standing around talking and chatting and getting to know each other. And that was kind of kind of nice instead of just seeing a bunch of people under a bridge on a phone, you know? But I wasn't going to let a little bit of rain slow me down. So I, like I said, I decided to embrace it. And as I was embracing it and just really enjoying it, and by the way, it never

fully rained. It only sprinkled on me or that kind of gentle shower, pretty much the entire way home and it's still doing it now. It never turned into full-blown rain, but it never stopped. It was so refreshing, though, and so fun and made me feel so untethered by time that it was just, man, I don't know if you ever ridden a bicycle in the rain, maybe when you're a kid, maybe you got caught in the rain somewhere as an adult, but if you can embrace it, that's a good time. While I was doing that, just listening to music and thinking about specific times in Covington and Mandeville, Louisiana at 13, 14 years old, riding through ditches with a couple of friends of mine. I used to live behind this place called Hill Behan. And if memory serves, it was, I think it was like a Home Depot, maybe like a lumberyard, or maybe it was a car dealership. I don't remember, but I lived kind of behind.

There was like a little neighborhood where I lived in Covington or Mandeville. I could never figure out, honestly, where I lived. I went to school in one and lived in the other, and it never meant any sense. But this little neighborhood backed up to some woods, and on the other side of the woods was like a high or of some kind. And so there was all kinds of highway businesses, car dealerships and all that kind of shit. And I remember, I don't know why this popped into my head, but I remember riding bikes over there in the rain one day, and they were given away free balloons at the car dealership. And so we got a bunch of free balloons full of helium. And then I just remember sucking so much helium

that I thought I was going to pass out and riding my bike through the woods in the rain with my friends giggling and laughing with silly voices and being thugging loopy out of my mind at 13 years old because I was huffing like six balloons. That's crazy. I don't think that thought made its way to my conscious for the last 25 years. That's weird, man. It's like cleaning out your junk drawer and finding an old photo that you don't know how it got there or like some sort of a memento, a keychain or something that you'd long lost, but as soon as you see it, you're like, oh, I fucking, I loved that keychain. Has it been here this whole time? That's a, that's funny. That's a funny memory.

I used to convince myself those woods and then, uh, it was a pretty woodsy area where I lived. Those woods and then to the right, I used to convince myself that they were full of, uh, I grew up in the era of satanic panic, right? In the 80s and the 90s, it was very real and it was very kind of cool and alluring. And if you liked heavy metal, music and punk rock he just thought it was neat you know the idea that there was like dark stuff out there my friends and i would get so scared running around the uh the woods at night and i remember one night we were exploring the woods probably in the other direction of that hill be and that service road or highway or whatever it was i think it was on the other side of the

neighborhood in the different woods that i don't know where they backed up to i don't I don't know if I ever went deep enough, but there was a long road that you could just walk all the way down and then it dead ended. I assume it was one of those things where they were going to build a subdivision out there. They built the road in and lost funding or whatever. And then at the end of that road, there were trails that went off in multiple directions into the woods. And I remember my friends and I walking around the woods one night. We got to that. I think we're on our bikes probably. You remember when you're like 13 and 14 and everything is possible. You can convince yourself that anything exists still. And that is such a fun, exciting, exhilarating,

terrifying time to be alive because the world is still pretty full of possibilities, even terrible possibilities, you know, but I don't know. I kind of miss believing in everything, you know, still believing in everything. Anyway, we go to the end of where the road dead ends and there's all the trails and we see like a glint of something off in the distance, like fire or something off in the distance. And so we approached down one of the trails. And so we approached down one of the trails. This is like on a, I guess probably a Friday night because I was out at night with my friends. I doubt I would have been able to do that on like a Tuesday. As we got closer, we could hear noise and people talking and stuff.

But not music. I remember thinking like if it was kids hanging out in the woods, I'd be playing music or whatever. And as we got closer, we could just see a bunch of people around a big fire. And I'm sure it was probably high school kids drinking, set up a bonfire on a Friday night, or a bunch of homeless people who had a camp out there or who fucking knows. But my friends and I were convinced it was devil worshippers and that if they caught us, we were going to get sacrificed. So we got on our bikes and we ran the hell out of there.

And for a couple of years, I had convinced myself that I had barely escaped being sacrificed to the devil. That wasn't what I wanted to talk about today. I just popped that away in. So while I'm riding around and I'm having these memories and enjoying the rain, a song came on by this band Boilermaker that I really like. It's called Slingshot. And I think I might have even made it a song of the episode at some point.

If not, I meant to. So check it out either way. It was just like a 90s emo band. I genuinely don't know how they ended up on my playlist. It's not a band that I remember having heard of when I was younger and in the scene. Although I looked them up, I think they were around from like 93 to 2002. So the exact time frame that I was the most active in the scene. I imagine I probably added them as a related artist to some other band that was listening

to or enjoying. I definitely went through a little Midwest emo phase there a couple months ago or added a bunch of bands. So they could have got thrown in during that, although I think they're from California or somewhere. Anyway, that song came on and I got excited because I had kind of, you know, my playlist has gotten so big lately. There's probably six, 700 songs. So songs don't come through very often and I had kind of forgotten about them. And then in the moment, I was like, all right, I do like this band. I was just in the process of discovering this band, and I got really excited. I was singing along to the song and enjoying it and thinking about how silly it is, that this is a band that I absolutely dig. They're right

up my alley. And I would have liked them in 1993, like I liked them in 2025. My musical tastes haven't evolved that much in the grand scheme of things. I like more stuff today than I did then, but chances are if I liked it, then I'm going to like it now. And this band had an entire career a decade of being a band at a time when I was the most receptive to liking a band like this. And we just ships in the night, right? Just past each other, had no idea. They just, I missed them, somehow never discovered them. They had an entire career. They probably played in Austin 50 times and I never went to see them. If I had, maybe things would have been different. And that got me thinking about how much fun I've had this last couple of years looking

backward at music and discovering so many things that I've missed, not from just like things that happened before me, obviously, because there's a rich musical history that existed well before I was born in 1975, but just the things that I've missed in my own lifetime. And that immediately reminded me of this TikTok interview I saw recently, which I guess I shouldn't even call it a TikTok interview. That doesn't make a lot of sense, actually, to say. I saw the snippet of an interview with Adam Horowitz, who's Ad Rock from the Beastie Boys, who, by the way, my TikTok, I had one, like, live Beastie Boys performance come through my TikTok, and I liked it, and now I get 50 Beastie Boys TikToks a day, which is fine. I don't mind it. I quite enjoy it,

but it's funny how that algorithm works. And they decided I wanted to see just tons and tons and tons of live performances and interviews with AdRoc and Mike D. And that's what they're giving me right now. A limitless supply. presents The Roses, only in theaters August 29th. From the director of Meet the Parents and the writer of Poor Things comes The Roses, starring Academy Award winner Olivia Coleman, Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Sandberg, Kate McKinnon, and Allison Janney. A hilarious new comedy filled with drama, excitement, and a little bit of hatred, proving that marriage isn't always a bed of roses. See The Roses only in theaters August 29th. Anyway, I saw the

snippet of an interview because I don't think I've seen a full interview and I said social media was invented and it was a somebody asking Adam Horowitz who is a little bit older than me probably somewhere in the neighborhood of late 50s or early 60s even they were had to be 10 years older than I was around maybe 7 8 9 10 years older than me I'm sure I'm way off on that but whatever what I'm going to look it up find the answer I'd rather just continue to vaguely assume that they're somewhere in the neighborhood of seven to ten years older than me. And anyway, the interviewer asked, what's some new music you've been into lately? Like, what hip-hop artists are you into? What new stuff are you digging?

He was like, can I be honest with you? I don't listen to fucking any of it. I have none of it, nothing. I have no idea what's going on in popular culture today. I have no idea what's going on with popular music. I couldn't care less. No offense to any current artist, but I got no clue. When the guy was so taken aback by it, he was like, seriously? Why? Why? How could, but you're a luminary? How do you not? And he goes, man, a couple things. One, I listen to music constantly. I am listening to and enjoying music more than I ever have in my life. I am looking at music from my past. I think he was saying he was really into Jamaican music at the time or something. And I can't remember like 70s Jamaican beats or so. I don't remember exactly what it was, but he was,

he was just talking about how he's in his old age just learned to explore so much of the music of the past and he's found there's so much he didn't know about and there's so much that he'd never been exposed to or discovered that he doesn't need to bother with current music right now because he's got the entirety of the music catalog of human history kind of at his fingertips, you know? And the interviewer was like, nobody really? There's nothing?

And he was like, listen, you, and I agree with this whole. wholeheartedly. He said, you don't want me listening to current music. There's no 20-year-old hip-hop artist out there who wants me listening to his music. I'm not cool. I was cool. I'm not cool now. It's not for me. The music wasn't created for me. It's not my space to be in. I'm leaving it to the next generation to enjoy because it is for them. It is for people that are younger than me. And I don't want to participate in it. I already had my time and my place in that world. And it's not, I'm not cool.

It's not cool to have a 50 year old guy listening to your music. And I felt that so hard. I felt it so, it was like he was, it was like he was looking into my brain and my heart when he said that because I am in the exact same boat.

I, well, that's not even true. I shouldn't say I'm in the exact same boat. I feel differently than him in one regard. I don't avoid new music. I'm not trying to shut out pop culture and the current world at large in any way. I'm just not looking for it, you know? Like, I spent so much of my life, I think about this a lot. I spent so much of my younger life just clamoring for the new thing to come out, the new thing to happen. There's going to be a new movie I want to see. So-and-so's

going to have, you know, there's going to be a new bad religion album that I can't wait for. And I spent so much of my life looking forward at things that weren't available yet that were going to be available soon and getting so excited for them and building up the hype and going through the process of then either having that hype be rewarded and having the thing that I wanted be better than I could have imagined or as good as I wanted it or let down most of the time honestly most things I remember for instance when punk and drublet came out a album by no effects I thought it was the best thing they'd ever done to that point I couldn't believe how good it was all of my friends loved it so much we were already fans but this album really took them to another level

we were so excited for heavy petting zoo to come out. When heavy petting zoo came out, it was different and I didn't connect with it. And I was so bummed that I didn't listen to that album for years. Turns out it was a great album. No issues with that album whatsoever. But you build, you spent, at least in my youth, I spent so much time building up expectations for things that weren't available for me, trying to chase the next thing, the next cool trend, or a thing that would be fun or cool or interesting. And oftentimes, just law of averages. it's not going to be, it's going to fall short. Whereas, as I've gotten older,

these last few years, I've started to understand that instead of clamoring and hoping that the next thing is going to be good or worth my energy or time or attention, I can just focus that energy, time, and attention in the other direction

at the limitless supply of artistic endeavor. that exist for me to enjoy. And you don't have to wait for the new thing and hope it's good. You can just grab any of the amazing, wonderful things that are good, that are seminal and groundbreaking and phenomenal and revered and loved and beloved and well-regarded and reviewed and documented. You have the entirety of the human history of music and expression behind you. that you can choose from. And we've done a pretty good job of categorizing what has value and what

doesn't and what has the most value, which is, you know, a subjective term. But you get what I'm saying. I have learned over the last few years that there's so much behind me to enjoy that it's really switched my focus away from what's not available yet or will be available soon or on the horizon soon. And I guess that's a thing that just comes with age. But going back to what I was saying earlier, I'm 50 now. Like, Polo G, I listen to, here's an example of new music, right? I listen to Polo G or T. Grizzly or to switch up gears snail mail, I like a lot. Those are three musicians that don't want me at their shows. I mean, I'm sure they don't want to turn away any fan, right? But it's fucking weird for me to be at a Polo G show or at a snail mail

show. You know what I mean? Like, unless I'm there to support my daughter, or I'm a friend of the family or some sort of a music executive. It's not my world. And I don't want to be one of those people who doesn't know when to leave the party and is 40 years old in a corner doing a keg stand around a bunch of 22 year olds. I already struggle enough with the Peter Pan of my life and the fact that I don't really feel like I fit in as a 50 year old with other 50 year olds and I still like all the same shit I did when I was 10. And so I'm kind of all over. over the map about myself in general, the last thing I want to do is try to give the appearance that I'm trying to outlive some sort of youth that's no longer mine to express. I also, I like

being old. I may not fit in with other 50-year-olds. I may not feel like, I don't know. I mean, I don't know how to be an appropriate 50-year-old, but I like that I'm 50, you know? I don't want to be 20 again. I don't want to be 30 again. I wouldn't die. I wouldn't kill me to be 40 again, but I don't want, I like the accumulation of this life and these scars and these memories and experiences. And I'm fucking, I'm proud that I made it this far. I don't understand the midlife crisis where guys try to skew young to hide from all of their life experiences and growth because I think that's all this does the reward of all the bullshit that you go through is you get some pretty cool scars and maybe some not so great PTSD and some issues but

that's what therapy is for but you have this this wealth of experience that you've lived that you can mine and use and look back upon and it's so much fun to be old I like it. I really do. And I don't want to pretend like I'm the demographic for a snail mail or a Polo G or a Chapel Rhone, because I'm definitely not. I'm that guy who's supposed to be listening to bands that were popular in 1980 who are still putting out music that nobody under the age of 50 has heard of. And you're like, no, it's still really good. You'd really like it. And you're like, wow, I didn't know, I didn't know Jackson Brown was still pumping out albums. Or whatever. Jackson Brown's probably long dead. I don't, shit, I don't want to kill the man. Hold on.

I also don't know why I pick Jackson Brown. That's a musical reference from my mother's. Yeah, he's still alive. He's doing, he's 76, doing great. I bet he's still putting out new music, too. New Jackson Brown album. I pick a guy who's from my mother's generation, not my own, even, which is funny. But, you know, downhill from, this is exactly what I was talking about. Downhill from everywhere is the 15th studio album by American singer-songwriter Jackson Brown. It was released in 2020. came out. Oh, it was nominated for a Grammy in 2022 for Best Americana album. You know what? I think I'm just getting further and further away from any point I was trying to make. Because here is... Well, okay, Jackson Brown's not making music for Gen Z, right? He's making music for the boomers that are still alive. The Cure isn't making music for Gen Z right now. They're making new music for Gen X and millennials that still want to support them.

I think I agree with that. I think I'm on board with what I'm saying. Sometimes you talk faster than you think, you know, and then you got to... Well, anyway. I'm sure there was some sort of a point in there somewhere. I think that if I didn't discover a new... I mean, we're just talking about music here.

I guess this could apply to other forms of entertainment media as well. But if I spent the rest of my life and I didn't discover a single new musician or artist or band from this point on, if I capped it at 2025 and from like 2026 on was just white noise, I couldn't ingest it. And I could only enjoy music that was created and released up to that point. I wouldn't even scratch the surface of stuff that I love.

The fact that at 50 years old, I can stumble upon a band that I like as much as any other band I've ever listened to up to that point. The fact that there are those artists and musicians still out there to discover and there are a limitless supply of them, especially if you expand your horizons and look outside the box a little bit of what you're used to, you can be absolutely blown away by just the unending supply of brilliant artists out there.

And that's a pretty cool feeling. That's a really comforting feeling, if I'm being honest with you. Hell, I think that I could probably spend most of the rest of my life exploring music that came out in my lifetime and still not uncover everything there is to like. There has been so much, there was so much music created from the age of like 11 to 18 for me that just that alone, I don't. think I'll ever be able to fully digest. It's wild. It's another one of those reasons where I just wish I could live forever. I want to listen to everything. I want to discover everything. I've been super intemento and calypso lately. And I wanted to get, I wanted to understand how Jamaican, how first wave Jamaican ska came to be. So I wanted to listen to the music that inspired it. And it's been such a wild experience that I, I know I wouldn't have had if I was constantly focused on

what bands are about to come out with music or trying to scour the billboard top 200 for whatever new band it is to listen to. Not that I shouldn't because there's tons of valuable, worthwhile stuff out there. New stuff happens constantly. I, you know, I do have new music that I consider myself a fan of, but I just have really, I think as I've aged, maybe this is just a part of growing old. I think I've learned to spend less time looking forward and more time looking backward and, man, when you turn around, the rearview mirror, there's a lot going on in there. There's a lot going on in the rear view mirror. How about a song of the episode?

I'm not going to pick Boilermaker because I feel like I already did at some point. I'm going to pick sidewalk by a veil. Virginia punk rock, early 90s, early to mid-90s, went on to have an incredibly popular album called Over the James but before they made that they made this and this is also really good

all right this is the end of the show la da da da da da da la blah